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The Real Reality

Our troubles begin our desires, and desires, in their turn, lead to all other vices as enumerated already. They have become part and parcel of our life, and we live and die for them. If you were to step aside, you can for yourself witness and see how people drift along helplessly simply by force of habit. A really Awakened Person looks on the world from a safe point of vantage – from the level of the soul. They take pity on us and, in loving terms, try to impress upon us the futility of the life which we are leading. They tell us: We have seen many a human mould rotting under the earth. When this is the case with the human body, what is there in it for us to be proud? 

It is rightly said, 

Dust thou art and to dust returneth.

This is the angle of vision that is presented to us by Godmen. Guru Nanak now goes on to explain: 

Listen ye to our sage counsel; listen ye must. Godly acts shall alone save thee from the cycle of births.

With what a sense of compassion these words have come from the heart of Nanak. The body and the bodily adjuncts have been given to us as aids in self-realisation and God-Realisation. But we are going the other way around. When Godmen see us in this sad plight, They are moved to the extreme and cannot help giving us a piece of Their mind. They, having solved the enigma of life for Themselves, tell us of the Way whereby we, too, can do likewise. It is the Godly Acts that can help us in this behalf. Human life is a great blessing. It provides us with the opportunity and the means to save ourselves from this mighty maze of the world in which we are lost like babes in the woods. Godly Acts may be distinguished from good acts. Good and charitable acts, whatever their merit, keep us in bondage like their counterparts, the evil acts. If the latter takes us to nether regions, the former, to higher regions. But in each case, after the period allotted for undergoing punishment or enjoyment is run out, we have to return to the mortal plane again. Thus we see that good acts are not of much avail in gaining freedom from mind and matter. The Saints, therefore, speak of Godly Acts – acts which take us Godward. These acts are termed Sukrat.

Kabir also emphasises: 

Do Sukrat deeds; commune with the Word – who knows what may happen tomorrow?

And significantly enough He adds: 

What to speak of the morrow, one does not know what may happen the next moment.

In the list of Godly Acts, the most important thing is righteousness. One must be true to himself. If one is true to himself, he cannot be false to anybody. He would not try to deceive and cheat others. He would be truthful in thought, word, and deed.

We have very hazy notions of truthfulness. We try to be clever by suppressing Truth and by giving false suggestions in the garb of Truth. Both these things are despicable. Suppressio veri and suggesstio falsi are equally condemned, for they are far from Truth. Some of us are in the habit of giving out half-truths – as much of Truth as suits our purpose. Some of us feel that in business we cannot succeed unless we adopt such tactics. But mind, this is not the case. You may lose a customer here and there; but when people would know of your integrity and honesty, you will have brisk business. 

Next in importance are chastity – a life of rectitude – and non-violence, Universal Love, and selfless service and sacrifice. We must not only wish well of everybody, but think and act likewise. These are some of the instances of sukrat karmas or Godly Acts. 

When the five Pandavas were sent for schooling, the first thing that the teacher taught to them was to speak truth, accept truth, and live truth. In the traditional way of teaching, emphasis was on practicality and not simply understanding a thing on an intellectual level. After some time the teacher inquired of them if they had learned their lesson to heart. All the brothers except the eldest Yudishtra replied in the affirmative. When his turn came, he said, I am trying to learn the lesson by the roots, and it would take some time before I take roots into it. Again, sometime after the teacher repeated his inquiry Yudishtra replied that he had not yet fully grasped and practised the truth of what he had been taught. 

This is called learning the lesson by the roots and not by rote. Yudishtra learned his lesson to the very core and practised it all his life, with the result that he came to be known as Dharmaputra – a Real Apostle of Truth. 

Those who are devoted to the Master and follow His commandments, they live carefree in all the three worlds, so saith Kabir.

Righteousness is the greatest of virtues. It washes off myriads of evil impressions. If we are obliged to hide our deeds or to polish them up with lies or prevarication, we must take it for certain that there is something wrong in them. Next to righteousness is chastity. Truth is great but True Living is greater still. Chastity is life, and indulgence is death. To live as a householder in conformity with the scriptural injunctions is no sin. Marriage is no bar to Spirituality. It is a sacrament and must be observed and lived as such. If we indulge in it for sex enjoyment, it is sinful; and the wages of sin are death. We must lead a life of continence in thought, word, and deed. Again, God dwells in all of us. We are children of God and we worship the same God. This being the case, there is no reason why we should hate anybody. One may be occupying a seat of honour and another may be standing in attendance upon him.

It is all a play of karmas. Furthermore, when the same God-Power is in each one of us, it is but natural that one should be of service to another. In fact, by serving another we are serving our own self in another form. Next comes Ahimsa or non-violence. It is said to be the greatest Dharma, duty. If you are in search of God, try to see Him in yourself and in others. If you realise this you will not do injustice to anyone. All these are Godly Acts and help one in self-realisation and God-Realisation. And, we must take to them forthwith, for life is uncertain and we cannot be sure of the next moment. While practising these we have to commune with the Word. 

The next question before us is as to the nature of the Holy Word. God in absolute is Nameless. When He came into expression, He became a Name – the Word. It is by this Power of God that the world came into being. Why He exercised this Power, we do not know. We are all engaged in the game of blind man’s bluff in which one person is blindfolded by the master of the game and the rest hide themselves. Whosoever touches the master of the game is considered safe while the play goes on with the rest.

This is exactly the case with us. We are blindly searching for God, each one in his own way. He who is fortunate enough to find his way out to Him is saved and escapes from the clutches of mind and matter. We have, after all, to develop our Inner Eye whereby to perceive the Power of God in us. For this purpose, we have to accept and practise Godly Acts and establish a communion with the Holy Word. 

These are the things which abide with the soul and help in liberating it from the wheel of life and death. Having learned the two prerequisites for the way out, we still need the help of Someone Who has already become One with that God-Power. It is in His company and with His guidance that we can safely traverse the Spiritual Path which is fraught with dangers and pitfalls. The Guru knows the turns and twists of the road; and without His able guidance, one cannot make any headway on the Path. We have to accept His guidance without any mental reservations; and one who does so will know the secret of the God-Power, for It is working in fullness at that Human Pole. 

Guru Nanak then goes on to say: 

Addressing himself, Nanak lays emphasis on the instructions of the Master; why dost thou talk idly of others and speak ill of them?

To slander others is a vile act. It is a double-edged weapon. It hurts both the slanderer and slandered. To speak rightly of a person or a thing is a very difficult job.

It is, therefore, said: 

Judge not, lest ye be judged and found wanting (by the Great Judge).

But, we recklessly indulge in talking loosely of others and take delight in it. 

My Master, Hazur Baba Sawan Singh Ji, used to say: 

There is, no doubt, some taste, sweet, sour, or bitter in whatever we eat; but tell me, what taste does calumny bring to you? Is it not something tasteless? Why then should we indulge in something which has no taste at all?

But, with all this we waste most of our time in talking ill of one or the other. We all the time try to weigh each others’ thoughts, words and deeds, riches, and domestic affairs. What is the result of all this? When we hear this talk all around us, of our friends and relations, we naturally lose faith in everybody. So, instead of working for God, we become unpaid apprentices of the C.I.D¹. of God. If a person is good, we should try to emulate him. If one is on the God-Path, we should try to follow him. So far so good. But to be jealous of others does not pay. Jealousy breeds suspicion and unnecessarily makes one nervous and timid. The God-Way is for the strong and not for the weak. Constant worry corrodes the mind. We must forget the past and work for our betterment in the living present. 

The great men say: 

So far and no further.

They draw a dividing line between the past and the present and want us not to fall again – fall below the eye-focus. 

Oh ye, thy eyes are set on the affairs of others and how ye may steal a march on them. The moment thy soul departs, thou shalt remain behind as once deserted.

For most of the time we are occupied with the affairs of other people: their wealth and riches, their robes and attires, their wives and children. The whole day we talk of nothing else but these things. We never for a moment pause to think if there is anything else besides them. We make odious comparisons and then start fretting and fuming over what we call our ill-luck and misfortune. We work ourselves to a pitch over our supposed grievances and injustices of God. What is the result? We buy for ourselves heartaches and headaches for nothing.

Then in a fit of frenzy, we try, by hook or by crook, to get to the level of others. We do not know that with all our cleverness and cunning, we cannot get more than what is destined for us. The result is that we go on adding to the load of our karmas without any return in the shape of material gains. And if at all, we secure some advantages and make trivial gains here and there by our manoeuvres and tactics, what is their value? For how long are they going to last with us? Ill-got ill-spent. Ill-means and ill-ends remain with us, and we shall have to pay for them – pay for trash and at a heavy cost, indeed. All the misdeeds we do are just for satisfying our momentary desires. Life is but a vapour and vanisheth in no time. 

When the ghost leaves the body, what remains? This very material body for which we make so much bother and indulge in all sorts of mad tricks and dirty games. What is now going to be the end of this tabernacle of the flesh? Nobody in the family likes to keep it even for a moment. Everyone seems keen to dispose of it and consign it either to the flames or to the grave. While he was living, he was the cynosure of all eyes; and everyone looked up to him for one kind of favour or another. Now that the indweller has slipped out, nobody cares for it. This then is the body for which we work so much day in and day out. 

Why sleep ye in the dreamland of the world and not do anything of abiding interest to thee? Why try ye to hoodwink others just for the passing pleasures of thy mind? What does thou gain here in this world and the next except that ye barter life for nothing?

It is a commonsense talk. In great detail we are told how we waste the precious human life that is given to us for a specific purpose – the purpose being self-realisation and God-Realisation. But when an Awakened Person like Nanak sees us going the wrong way, He cannot but make a heart-rending appeal to our commonsense. He tells us to have a correct view of life. First things first.

From the level of the soul which is the substratum of everything in the world, including our mind and senses, we must first pay attention to it. On the contrary, we work all the time for the welfare of our body and for mental development and pay scant attention to the Soul, the driving force in us. Karmas by themselves, however good and meritorious they may be, cannot be of any help in this respect. We have to reach the still-point of the soul by rising above both the body and the mind. It is here that one becomes neh karma or actionless in action. Until and unless we cross all the mental zones by the Grace and guidance of the God-Power manifested in some Human Pole, we cannot transcend this treacherous ground.

It is only with singleness of mind that we can gain anything. We cannot achieve anything in the world, may be riches of the world or name and fame, without working for them wholeheartedly. The world is ready to adore you if you make yourself worthy of the Self in you. We know of Nanak and Kabir and love Them for Their own sake. Excuse me, very few of us know Their parentage and other details about Their families. While They lived They gave right understanding to the people, and the people to this day give Them great honour and reverence. We are fighting the losing battle of life, and God alone knows when we may get an opportunity like this: 

Oh Nanak, attend ye to the affairs of thy body so that ye may make God-Power manifest in thee and ye be engaged in singing the praises of the Lord.

It is necessary that the body may be looked after and taken care of so that it helps us in our objective. We may also square up our accounts with those around us. The main thing, therefore, is to realise self in us. If we do not do this, all else is of no avail. 

In this context Guru Arjan says: 

Accursed are all our deeds: the foods we take and the comforts alike, accursed are the fineries with which we wrap our bodies, accursed also are the friends and relations that surround us all, if, with all these, we do not reach the Lord. For once we lose this opportunity and let it slip away, we are lost.

It is the same old story that all the sages have, from time to time, given to us. But think for yourself how much you have changed. We hear a thing but do not act. 

Be ye the doers […] and not hearers alone,

says Jesus. 

We simply hear and pass on to others but do not adopt them in our own life. We try to reform the world and not ourselves. 

Swami Ram Tirath aptly said: 

Wanted, reformers not of others but of themselves.

What would we get? 

He replied, 

God-head.

Guru Nanak now tells us of the sad plight of the body and how it wails in agony. 

Woe unto me, oh Nanak; what a shame that no one now bothers for me.

When the Lord of the body leaves the body, what remains? Now it ceases to have any value, and nobody is prepared to keep it on for any length of  time. All get keen to dispose of it as quickly as possible. It is regarded as an abomination in the house; and so long as it remains, one cannot do anything else. This, then, is the dirge of the poor body in distress lying unattended and not cared for. All the life’s labour is undone in a moment. All religious creeds, all social orders, and all possessions of the world remain behind. 

One may have the finest steeds, immense wealth, and the costliest of clothing; oh Nanak! none of these would go with the departing soul and all shall be left behind.

Nowadays we have big limousines for our transport. We have air-conditioned and centrally heated mansions to live in. We have brocade and chiffon draperies with which to cover our bodies. We indulge in all these luxuries so that we should feel cozy and comfortable. 

After all the body needs something in which to be wrapped. Why wrap it with costly material beyond our means? We can have a simple shelter over our heads. But everyone tries to run a race and outstrip others who are in affluent circumstances. And what is the result? Man is forced to beg, borrow, or steal. An honest man cannot, honestly speaking, afford to have all these things. But he is forced to adopt foul methods to meet the increasing demands of his wife and children. If he fails to do so, he is nagged day and night.

We have become slaves to fashion and, like a weathercock, move this way or that with every whiff of the wind that blows. Our ladies can do much to help the earning members in the family – the lesser their demands, the lesser the chances of men going out of their way to procure and secure ill-gotten gains. It is said that a housewife can build or raze down a house just by the point of her needle. If an average man gets two square meals a day and a simple night shelter over his head, that is enough. The rich and the poor go alike empty handed. 

We have before us the cases of Croesus, Alexander the Great, and Mahmood, the iconoclast. All of them were great monarchs, each in their own way. What did they take with them while departing from the world? Nothing. Each shed bitter tears of repentance. Repentance, though good in itself, cannot cure the past. This being the case, it is always safe that one should earn by honest means than to acquire plenty of money by oppressing others and trampling on their rights. 

In short, 

One cannot amass riches without resort to dishonest and unfair means; but alas! in the end, all shall remain behind.

And the poor soul clothed in the old mental coverings takes its solitary flight alone. 

Oh man! thou have tasted all the pleasures of the world, but what thou hath not tasted is the Elixir of Naam, sweetest of them all.

In the world we have been late and soon with everything pleasurable. Everything has had pleasure in one form or another: 

The candy, sugar, molasses, the honey, and the milk, all these things are wonderfully sweet; but, oh Lord, none of these reaches to the sweetness of Thy Name.

God is Light in fullness. Our Soul, too, is a spark from that Light. We are so constituted that we find no rest until we rest in Him. A part is ever restless until it rests in the whole. A conscious soul, when conditioned, keeps moving up and down in the wheel of life. It is only the unconditioned Soul – fully awakened – that can reach the Ocean of Consciousness. Conditioned in the body and the mind, we have been embellishing our environments and not the indwelling spirit. Take care of the house as much as possible, but do not forget the indweller of the house. He, too, needs as much of food and attention as the body. The spirit, being of God, is to be fed by the Power and Spirit of God – the Holy Word or Naam. 

All this has to be done even as a householder. A true horseman is one who holds himself firm with his feet firmly settled in both the stirrups. There is no need to leave your hearths and homes and to go into the wilderness. A boat on the surface of the water sails smoothly and not on dry land. The God-Power has to be contacted while in the body and in the world and not otherwise. I am telling you all this from my personal experience. Even if one goes into the forest, he is still dogged by the problems of life. Even for his bare sustenance, he is to depend on others. The memories of his family and children continue to haunt him all the time. Here, too, one gets attached to trees, develops kinship with forests and the silk-skinned animals, like spotted deer, and milk animals like goats and cows. So, leaving the house under the stress of circumstances or otherwise does not matter much until there is real Inner Detachment – Vairagya. One living in the midst of the world and worldly activities still can be detached if he develops right understanding.

Take, for instance, the case of Raja Janaka. He was Raj Rishi, a royal sage, who was unaffected by the splendour of his court and ruled well and wisely. Thus the question is one of changing one’s angle of vision. One may live where one may be, carry on one’s usual vocation or calling in an honest and straightforward way, but at the same time have an Inner Awakening which would automatically free him from all thoughts of his surroundings.

And the Inner Awakening, as said before, comes through the Grace of some Word-personified Saint Who makes the Word manifest in us: 

Oh ye, take it for certain, without the least shadow of doubt, without the active aid and guidance of a Perfect Master, none can get out of the mighty maze of the world.

The need of the Guru is a must if one wants to ferry over the sea of life. Even a renunciate cannot do without a Guru. So is the case with a householder. But a householder needs a Guru Who has Himself been a householder. Why? A Guru who has never passed through the vicissitudes of life can hardly understand the difficulties of worldly aspirants for God. One who has lived in the world and has risen above the world can give us a correct lead God ward. He tells us that there is hope for everybody – even for the worst of sinners. Every Saint, He says, has had His past. Rome was not built in a day. Things can be mended and changed by regular daily practice, even while living in the family. 

One may raise a palatial mansion, but what is it? – a house built on sand. Whatever thou gathereth for thy comforts and in blindness regardeth as thine is all delusion.

We are living in a state of continuous flux. In this changing panorama of life, we, too, are changing every moment. This is why we cannot appreciate the changing nature of the physical self and of the world around us. We think that we have to live permanently in this world. We, therefore, build big and tall houses with deep foundations so that they may last long. They may outlast us, but they cannot last forever. Like a caravansary, our sons and grandsons may live in them for a while like us and depart likewise. Even these solid stately houses cannot last forever. In course of time, they are reduced to rubble. Do we not see so many ruins around us as relics of the past glory? A really Awakened Soul is not bothered about palaces and cottages, which are to Him just as night shelters – one may be for the rich and the other for the poor. 

It has rightly been said that a camel may pass through the eye of a needle, but a rich man cannot enter the Kingdom of God. And why? Because the Path Godwards is for the humble in spirit and not for those with an inflated ego. A rich man, on the other hand, is too much mixed up with the world. And more so, he has a heavy load of karmas on his head.

Stuck fast in the quagmire, an animal with a heavy load on his back cannot be pulled out easily. What do we do? We have first to lighten his load and then drag him out of the mud. This is exactly what a Guru does. In His Grace and compassion, He momentarily lifts up the soul currents from the body in which they are stuck fast and then opens the way up to give a little demonstration of the Power of God in us.

Herein lies the greatness of a Perfect Master: 

What does it avail to take refuge with a Jagat Guru (world teacher) if he cannot wind up our karmas? In the presence of a lion, the jackals cannot come nigh and howl about.

A Saint Who has Himself transcended all the karmic zones knows how to wind up our karmas. At the time of initiation, in particular, it is He Who by His power pulls us up, in spite of us, and grants a peep into the inscape. This experience cannot be imparted by the so-called teachers of the world, however learned they may be. But an unlettered Guru may do it if He is a Guru in the true sense of the word – a torch bearer. The question is one of giving an actual Inner Experience. 

It is with the Grace of the Guru that one begins to understand himself.

And this understanding comes when one rises above the body and bodily senses. There is a way up above the body. As such you are the manipulator of the body and not the slave of it. Behind you there is a vast reservoir of Power called God. We have to know God, understand God, and experience God. This is the purpose of our birth – to know the will and ways of God. 

We are all engaged in amassing wealth and feel proud to do so. But all our riches remain behind when we depart from the world. What do we take with us when we leave? Not the wealth, not the ill-gotten gains, but the sad memory of the evil ways and inhuman practices by which we gathered our possessions. Possessiveness is the greatest evil. A blind man regards his possessions as his own. But an Awakened Person does not. We, sadly enough, live in the realm of mine and thine: 

One may build golden palaces and live in the midst of gold; but in the end, none of them will go along, and the golden palaces and glittering gold shall all remain behind.

It does not mean that we should not earn riches and should not have property. There is nothing wrong in them. All that is required is that we should be honest in our ways and means in the acquisition of these things. And then we should be grateful to God Who has helped us to them. These should better be considered as His gifts and should be treated as such, free from all sense of egoism: 

We must remember God in the closet of our mind; God by Whose Grace we are happily living in the temple of our body.

Excuse me, when I say that the priest craft has vested interests even in their religious performances. They are making a business out of them. They offer prayers for and on behalf of others just to make their own living. They sell indulgences for a pittance. They have found an easy way to earn money. All this is a kind of profession just like any other profession. But Spirituality is altogether something different and is a heritage of Saints. 

Now Guru Nanak, addressing His mind, gives an axiomatic Truth of immense value: 

Listen ye fool of an ignorant mind, what thou geteth is ordained from above.

Now appeal is direct to the mind. Mind is the chief factor in the drama of life. Every action has a reaction. The invisible finger of God moves in accordance with our actions. As we sow, so we have to reap. Can we escape from this network? Yes, we can. If we develop an all-seeing eye, we become the seer and cease to be the doer. In the Holy Light of God, there remains nothing to bind us down.

So this exhortation to the mind: 

Oh mind, thou liveth in the Light of God, why doth thou not recognise thy source?

This is a cry of anguish from the heart. Why? Because all the while we are busy in the world and the worldly things. We never pause for a moment to think of our own Self. We cannot possibly save our soul without becoming a Conscious Co-Worker of the Divine Plan. This is the summum bonum of life, and the Masters have laid great emphasis on it.

Nanak now winds up His song with the following words: 

Our Lord God is the Supreme Being, and we have to trade with Him; our mind and body are both from Him; we live, die, and are born again because of Him.

The greatest fact in God’s universe is God. The greatest need of human-kind is to know God. And the greatest purpose of God is to reveal Himself to man. And again, God reveals Himself through some Godman. 

The Godman, with a clarion call, invites us to His Father’s mansion.

I do nothing on my own. I call them as my Father wisheth.

Guru Arjan says likewise: 

He Who hath sent thee into the world is calling thee back; come thou with me with ease and pleasure.

Thus we are sent into the world to find our real Self and then the self of Self. This is the sole purpose of the Divine Plan. This is real trade – the trade of Naam or the Holy Word. How can this be done? By Satsang and search for Sat – Truth. For Satsang, we have to find the Sat Purush or One Who is Truth-personified. Having found a Godman, we have to develop loving faith in Him and to scrupulously follow what He says. He wants us to lead a clean life of purity and chastity. And then He gives instructions and guidance and enables us to have a practical experience of God within us. Truth is above everything, but True Living is higher still. We have to mould our lives on the pattern of the Godman. 

Without this nothing can be achieved. It is, therefore, said: 

He who lives truly for Truth is my True Disciple; such a one is my Lord God, and I feel proud of such a disciple.

We have to forsake the flesh for the spirit. We have to leave the world for the Word. But what do we see? Crying we come, and wailing we go. Are we not children of God? Is not God-Power surging in us from top to toe? Do we not live and die according to His will? His will is wrought in the very pattern of our being. It is then all the more necessary that we may learn to live in His Light of Life. Mere hearing is not enough. Do it and practise it from day to day. Let us practise God in our daily life and be forever happily free.

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Explanation: 1) Confidential Investigation Department – the Indian equivalent of the American F.B.I.